TOKYO — In equestrian dressage, horses maneuver through complicated, dance-like choreography. The animals pirouette, step high, extend their legs long, and side step to music, signaled by an expert rider. “The music side of it really brought our sport to life,” said Winnie Murphy, a spokesperson for British Equestrian.

Freestyle to Music, sometimes known as Musical Kur or simply kur (from German kür, “freestyle”) is a form of dressage competition where the horses paces are set to music to create a competitive “dance”.

dressage
As an equestrian sport defined by the International Equestrian Federation, dressage is described as “the highest expression of horse training” where “horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements.”

Is dressage cruel to horses? Dressage done well is not cruel to horses. The point of dressage is to demonstrate harmony and trust between horse and rider, which is achieved using correct, gentle training.

If done properly, horses shouldn’t hate dressage at all. Unfortunately, however, to some people dressage means getting the horse’s head down, whether that is by use of draw reins or sawing on the bit. Of course, if a horse is in discomfort during any activity, then he will come to dislike it.

The difficulty in dressage, especially in the more advanced work, is that there are very few circumstances where the aids can be completely removed. The horses have to work under varying degrees of pressure at almost all times. Dressage isn’t black and white, aid or no aid.

Dutch Warmblood
Dutch Warmblood The Dutch Warmblood is considered the world’s best dressage horse and the most common breed used for professional dressage.

Salivation is caused by a degree of pressure being put on the salivary glands by the rim of the jaw bone and the neck musculature. In addition, the result of salivating like this is that the horse chews softly, moving his tongue and swallowing, which in turn helps the relaxation of the jaw and poll.

“In general, it shouldn’t be painful for a horse to do dressage, or any other form of riding or driving discipline,” Linda writes. “Dressage is a discipline in which the horse is carefully trained over a considerable period of time (years) for increasingly strenuous and controlled movements.

A dressage rider’s balance comes from the core and seat more so than the leg. Though jumping is often taught with less core and seat emphasis, jump riders definitely benefit in performance and safety from a strong seat and core.

An equestrian is an expert horseback rider.

Yes, Valegro is still alive at age 18. Though he may be retired from competing, he still does lessons twice a week and goes for regular hacks, as he is in great shape.